Lisa Nielsen and Jay Young Gerard

Jay Young Gerard

Response

The Inevitable Forward

oils and water based inks on layers of canvas and tissue that are affixed to canvas

Lisa Nielsen

Inspiration Piece

I Came to Bring You to Your Death

I’ve watched the cancer
break you into pieces,
with convulsions and seizures
until it maintained,
summoning me to do the ugly bidding.

Grief has finally settled in like
another layer of skin,
hardened, relentless as an assassin, I
order the men in the lab coats to unplug
what is left.

Your eyes pop open for a moment, startled then
disappointed.  This was not the heaven you were expecting.

You settle back into your coma like a cat napping for the 35th time.
I talk to your ghost while your body bloats.
Friends and family make their reluctant last visit.

I used to wish you wanted more from me —
an aging man relying on his dutiful daughter,
you left me, instead, with bloodied hands and
and puddles of guilt

3 Comments

  1. Posted March 2, 2014 at 6:52 pm | #

    I like the way the image balances the sadness and looking back of the poem with lightness and the idea of progress. But the sadness of the poem is the feeling that lingers. Beautiful.

  2. Posted March 4, 2014 at 7:37 am | #

    wow, the poem is hauntingly beautiful and raw…and the painting looks like the beauty of life come undone. Just, wow.

  3. Posted March 4, 2014 at 5:22 pm | #

    Wow. My jaw just dropped.